Critters of Summer

OK, I admit it – I’m a critter junkie.  One of my greatest pleasures in life is watching God’s Critters.  I’m not fussy about what kind of critters, sparrows and eagles are all the same to me.  I even like watching hornets and yellow jackets – from a safe distance with binoculars of course but enjoy watching them none the less.

Its been a very good year for Critters too.  The rabbits have been much in evidence in the yard, mostly in the clover patches near the forsythia hedge.

The Praying Mantis hatched as usual at the end of May on the iris near the driveway and on the white pines.  They’re only about 3/8 of an inch long when they hatch.

By mid-July they’re right around 2 inches long.  At this point they disperse all around my yard and are much harder to find.  Probably much harder for hungry birds to find too.  By late August they will have wings and be ready to breed.

This is the 2nd turtle to visit my yard this year.  There are around half a dozen individuals that pop up in my yard from time to time.  I generally find them in the back yard when I check it before I mow.

This is a male Five-lined skink, Eumeces fasciatus, just over 6 inches long.  I’ve seen these in my back yard around the Norfolk pine stump, but these year he was very much in evidence on the wood pile just outside my kitchen door.  His orange colored head means its breeding season.

There were also 2 females in evidence; one about a half inch shorter then the male and one about 4.5 inches the long with a stubby tail.  The 3 Kitchen Skinks were very much in evidence from late April until Memorial Day Weekend, then they disappeared.  Stubby Tail had regrown most of her tail when I last saw her.

Then in mid July 6 to 8 of these little fellows showed up in the wood pile and on my kitchen porch.  When I first saw them they had about an inch of body and an inch and a quarter of tail.  I guess the mating went well.   A big male is also again in evidence around the Norfolk stump.

This nice little lady was in my yard when I came back from a grocery store run.  There have been an higher than usual number of deer tracks in the mud along the woods line too.  However, the deer seem to have seriously chowed down on the jewel weed that grows at the back of my yard.  So I haven’t been able to see as many hummingbirds this summer.  The Hummers really really like jewel weed.

Summer Projects

Events at Da Urchin’s place have occupied a fair number of my days off but that doesn’t mean I haven’t gotten any of my own projects done.

I bought this Class IV hitch and a wiring harness for my mule last January. I cleaned the road dirt off the van’s frame, held the hitch in place with a 2x6 laid across 2 pails and bolted everything together. The wiring harness didn’t come with any instructions but a YouTube video posted by a RV dealer fixed that. Now I can actually use the motorcycle and utility trailers I own.

Both of my Lodge Dutch ovens got rusty in storage.  I soaked them in white vinegar which removed the rust, washed them in hot water, dried them in the oven and then re-seasoned them both before painting the exteriors with Hi-Temp BBQ paint.

I got this trailer from Gypsy Jane who got it from Blacksmith Joe who built it. 

The top and one side of the plywood were showing their age.  I could rip pieces of rotten plywood off with my bare hands.  The box has been taken apart and removed from the trailer - a task with involved removing a jillion screws, several large bolts and the brackets the 2x4 supports rest in.

The flooring is still sound, so now I have a useable flatbed trailer.  I plan on mounting a standard A-frame ball mount, replacing the side mount tongue wheel with an in-tongue model, painting the frame and installing stake bed sides.  So I’m about half way there.

I’ve also gotten several more boxes of stuff sorted through, taken 2 boxes of clothes to Goodwill, trimmed various bushes in my yard and finished sewing snaps on my canvas tent door flaps so I can keep the sod flaps up out of the way as needed. 

And since all work and no play make for a very dull day I’ve also hunted out some good fishing places near my place.  No I won’t tell you exactly where they are, they’re My Fishing Holes if you get my drift.  But they hold decent sunfish and are quiet places to sit, fish and watch the world go by.  Which is what I’m about to do right now. 

Happy Birthday to the US of A

Urchin had planned a house warming party on the 4th but as my faithful readers know a bodacious storm blow the party right off the calendar.  Da Urchin and I seemed to be the only party folks with power so all of the potential party attendees were taking care of business.  I drove up on the 3rd after work and got more down tree cut up.   Don and Dolores arrived with a 2nd chain saw on the 4th and 2 of the neighbors came over with a chain saw too so the tree was reduced to a nice stack of wood by early afternoon

Don & Dolores

So the 4 of us had a nice quiet little July 4th party.  We watched the birds come to the veranda  birdfeeders, we chatted about all kinds of things, we played with Urchin’s cats, we chilled in the AC.  Just before dark we went to the local convenience store and got excellent subs and sandwiches made to order at pleasant prices.  We even got a few fireworks off before the thunderstorm drove us back inside.

It was a glorious day spent with family and friends.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

Nasty Ugly Storm

June 29th was a hot and muggy day so Sensible Me slept during the heat of the day with the intention of staying up very late and working on the Guest-Room-To-be.  I’d gotten up around 5pm, gone grocery shopping, mowed the yard and just finished a most pleasant fried fish dinner when the wind started to kick up a bit.  Then it kicked up a great bit more.  Paws-in-Trouble, my black cat who only comes in the house when its cold or the weather is otherwise truly abysmal, came running up to the kitchen door and DEMANDED to be let in as the wind got really really serious.  I could hear trees cracking and breaking but as it was full dark I couldn’t see much.  The power flickered off, then on, then off again and stayed off.  Other than the lighting and weird reddish flashing off to the north (the power substation took a direct hit) there was no sign of power on anywhere.  Not much rain, just an very scary cosmic light show and near hurricane winds. 

My phone jingled just as the weather was moving off – my Urchin’s new-to-her house, the one she’d been in for barely 2 months had taken a tree to the roof.  A big tree to the roof, with water poring down the kitchen ceiling, the the back kitchen wall and into down the basement.  She still had power, it was storming outside to beat the band at her place and I’m on my laptop at my place in the dark trying to find her home owner’s insurance 800 claim number via my laptop.  If it hadn’t been so serious it would have been funny.

Urchin’s Battered House

My house came through it all with nothing more than leaf debris in the yard and no power.  Urchin’s place had a tree trunk on her roof, major holes in the roof, damage to the roof ridge and some rafters, a broken window, a shorted out kitchen light fixture, cracks in the kitchen ceiling drywall sheets, water damage to the ceiling and 2 walls, a hole in the side of the house just under roof’s ridgeline, a damaged rear gutter and a very big puddle of water in the basement.   Plus some stray pieces of tree in the yard and one the rear deck.  The car was fine, she was fine, the pets were freaked out but fine and she had power.

Urchin’s boyfriend JR came out, moved the tree parts off the roof and put plastic tarps over the damage.  JR is a most wonderful boyfriend.  The insurance company called Monday, the adjuster was there Wednesday and I’m impressed.  The Urchin did decide to cancel her house warming party on the 4th, she felt she had enough on her plate with the house damage.  And she needed to find a contractor to fix things.

Smashed the Roof but Missed the Power Line

Meanwhile back at my place I was straightening up my kitchen and getting ready to drive down to Lynchburg.  My friend Gypsy Jane had a tree hit her RV so I was going to help her out.  Fortunately she didn’t end up needing much help.  I picked up a box in my kitchen, the bottom started to give way, I pushed the bottom back in place and thereby pushed a #2 treble fish hook all the way past the barb into my finger.  So I sat down, realized this was not something I could remove on my own, carefully unscrewed the hook from its lure and drove to the UVA hospital ER. 

US 29 south was a mess – trees and tree debris everywhere.  There were power crews working on down power lines and DOT crews removing roadway obstructions.  And there was no power, 3/4 of C’ville was sans electricity.  Fortunately UVA hospital has its own generators.  Several of them actually.  It took 2 hours, 3 shots of Novocain, 2 doctors, 1 intern and a tetanus shot but my right index finger was finally treble hook free.  I don’t want to think yet about what this will cost me.

My next task was to find some gas – I only has 3 or 4 gallons in my tank at this point.  Remember the no power in 3/4 of C’ville?  Well there was also no interwebs or land line phones in any of C’ville.  So gas stations with power still couldn’t pump gas if their pumps were net run and they couldn’t process ATM cards.  I finally found a good ol boy Exxon station with power, non-digital pumps and a manual credit/check card machine.  Thank You Jesus for low tech.

Tank filled, car charger for my cell phone acquired, I headed down to Gypsy Jane’s rig.  The campground had lost its main power line to a tree but the wadding in the water was wonderfully cooling and there was a delightful breeze all day.  The damage to her rig wasn’t too bad either.   I drove home that evening much refreshed although I still had no power at my house.  And the just bought frozen fish and chicken were toast. 

Sunday I headed to the Urchin’s place with my chainsaw.  She had power.  She had AC.  She had cold fluids.  I hadn’t slept well, what with the heat, no electricity and my very sore finger.  So I hydrated up at Da Urchin’s, napped for a few hours in her AC and then earned my keep by cutting up about half of tree trunk pieces.  I pulled in my driveway around 11:30pm to the welcome glow of my porch light.  Things are definitely looking up.

 

Hot & Hazy But Not Very Lazy June

It stayed hot for a week after the SLR Rendezvous but projects still proceeded on their merry little way.   Well OK, the projects inched along very very slowly with heat, humidity and rain impeding things every step of the way.  But inch along they did.

I had gone through my tools before Urchin’s major move in day and put together a decent maintenance tool set for her.  Now I loaned her first my 6 ft. ladder and then the 12 ft. one so she could change light bulbs, mount curtain & shower rods and the like.  I crawled up the 12 ft. ladder and cleaned out the rear gutter so it would drain properly and Urchin reinstalled the downspout once the thick layer of decayed plant material had dried out and blown (or been washed) away.  I also repositioned the cement pieces that go at the bottom of the downspout so that the water doesn’t make a muddy ditch in the yard. 

Her yard was looking good after its second mowing so my mower came home and I got my yard looking decent too.  There were a bunch of woody bushes on the hill behind the Urchin’s place that just had to go.  They didn’t show any signs of producing berries for the critters but they did have many many little quarter inch long thorns all over.  A good lopper and hand ax took care of them all.   (The ones down near the road will follow sometime this fall.)  My Thompson Water Seal sprayer has moved to the Urchin’s permanently and got used to do the underside of the veranda.  The back deck and veranda will get sprayed again in late September or early October.   Water is beading up on the wood nicely now but after 3 years of no maintenance a second treatment before winter seems in order.

Back at my place I first attacked the crawl space.  The last of the metal shed pieces have been recycled and various other pieces of junk have been hauled away.  Then I sorted through the boxes in the Urchin’s old bedroom.  A van load of stuff went to her house including her long misplaced DVD collection, a VHS/DVD player and a largish TV.  I’ve still got more work to do in her old room but its about 3/4 done and thus well on its way to being a guest room.  I also did some more work in my room – got the CD’s moved into the going-to-be guest room, the DVDs into the front room and the maple bookcase into my bedroom plus added pegs for 2 more bows to my bedroom wall.  I even got the fishing gear all together, cleaned all the rods and reels, put new line on my freshwater spinning & casting reels, sorted out my tackle box, and took my Urchin’s fishing gear and a tackle box of basic stuff to her place.

Somewhere in there I also drove up & visited D&D.  We had a grand time complete with a dinner at the Kabob Tavern in Vienna.  The Kabob Tavern is a wonderful little family run place and I plan on eating there again when I’m down that way.

About mid month I moved into the 21st century.  I started looking into adding texting to my cell, decided I would like some data too and started comparison shopping.  The best deal I could find was with Virgin Mobile.  For $35 a month I get the same number of minutes I had on my nTelos plan plus unlimited text and date.  (I also lost no-minute cell-to-cell and unlimited nights and weekends.)  Now texting was going to mean a new phone since texting on a phone with a alpha-numeric pad is an exercise in frustration.  Target had this nice Samsung Intercept at a price I could afford.  Yes an iPhone is spiffy and yes there are very cool fancier Androids out there, but if I wanted that many bells and whistles I’d get a tablet with a bigger screen and a smaller price tag.  The Intercept has a decent screen, is fast enough for the limited applications I use (weather, maps, bank balances etc.) and slides open to a wonderful keyboard with a nice tactile feel.  The battery is handling my usage just fine  - I charge it once a day when I’m sleeping.  And for those of you who want to know, the screen photo is my name-day patron St. Susanna of Palestine.

Shenandoah Long Rifle Memorial Day Weekend Rendezvous

The Urchin has done been moved and its time to gather my gear for a long weekend of camping in the woods pre 1840’s style.  The last Wednesday of May saw my gear loaded in My Faithful Mule Methuselah along with dog Sophia and her gear and the happy pair of us heading for my Urchin’s place.  Sophia was moving to Urchin’s permanently.  My 12.5 hour work schedule plus the 1.8 hour round trip commute makes for a very long night time inside for Sophia.  The Urchin works fewer hours in a shift, works days, has central air and a lovely full basement.  Sophia now has about a third of said basement as her private domain complete with her sleep cushion. 

The Urchin and I had a lovely evening just hangin’ out (as opposed to moving and unpacking) and I headed towards Belle Grove Thursday well rested and ready for a long weekend in the woods.  I stopped at the Hupp’s Hill Civil War Museum in Strasburg en route.  It’s a pleasant little museum, has both military and civilian artifacts, a very pleasant signed walking trail, and several shaded picnic tables.  Almost all of the artifacts have been donated by local families.  It was well worth the stop.

I had my lodge set up by noon Thursday in a nice spot with all day shade at the range end of the camp.  I did misjudge the tree limb height in front of my lodge and there wasn’t room for my fly.  A strong breeze would have had limbs thumping the canvas and I really don’t want to be fixing honey locust thorn damage to my fly.  The weather held all weekend and I had plenty of shade so the fly really wasn’t needed.

My Thursday arrival meant I was there for the opening ceremony.  It was a pleasantly casual affair with most folks gathered around in chairs in the shade.  It was a warm weekend, not as brutally hot as last year but definitely a drink-plenty-of-water warm weekend.

Here’s Trina welcoming everyone under the watchful eye of the purser.  It is important to be known to the purser – he also knows first aid.

Ceremonies over its on to the serious ‘Vousing.  This man is weaving a bark storage container.  He’s using a stick of firewood as a form so he can get the weaving tight and the basket consistent in shape. 

Cooking is a major part of any event – this couple has a elevated brazier setup.  Cooking while sitting is much easier on the back than cooking standing bent over a ground fire.  Less smoke in the eyes too.

Of course shooting is an integral part of any ‘Vous.  Paul has just finished cleaning what he calls his Ugly Gun.  If ya shoot it ya gotta clean it.  (I don’t photograph the shooting – its impolite.)

Karen and  Jimmy are just shooting the breeze over crackers and cheese.

Karen usually sets up at the opposite end of camp.  This year she was at my end where she figured it would be nice and peaceful.  Except everyone decided her camp was the place to hang out, so while it wasn’t the noisy camp it was a busy one.  Iche Iia,  One Blanket (Shawn) and others are planning supper. 

Some folks think Rendezvousing (or buckskinning) is just a bunch of guys getting dirty in the woods – but there’s plenty of couples and families in these here shinning times.

Here’s another ‘skinner couple from the camp.

And yet another.  That table and chairs fold up into the box like table top. 

Iche Iia & One Blanket again – solving some matter of great import I’m sure.

Gypsy Jane at Seams Colonial – this trader started out with a blanket and a clothes rack.  A very good place to get powder horns and sashes as well as clothes.

Of course there were trade blankets aplenty – although not by yours truly.  I need what I have and have already sold what I don’t need.

Not everyone uses a canvas tent.  Matt set up this reed mat lodge.  There’s a framework of bent thin saplings under those mats.

Matt also makes and shoots primitive self bows.  He’s currently working at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton. 

Primitive archery is becoming common at rendezvous.  Its now common to see archery tackle in camp.  The owner of this quiver has been using it since he was a kid.

Woven basket quivers are also popular – they dry out quickly if they get rained on, are light weight and were used by many Indian tribes who lived east of the great plains .  Gypsy Jane and I both use this type of quiver.

May is for Moving

For the last several months my Urchin has been house hunting.  At first things didn’t go so well – great houses in poor locations, great locations with poor houses and great houses in great locations with not so great price tags.  Then a realtor showed here a house under contract but with financing not looking good.  The financing did fall through and after a couple weeks of knuckle biting my Urchin closed on a home of her own.  And it’s a winner.

Front room & kitchen have semi-cathedral ceilings, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths and a full unfinished basement.  The living area is entered at ground level from the back & the basement is entered from ground level in the front.  (Boyfriend in the yard mowing is not included in the purchase price.)

And the view from the veranda . . .

They build Scenic View overlooks on freeways for views like this.  That’s the lower Shenandoah Valley in the distance.

Most lots are around an acre in size & the development is built on a hillside, so the houses have a great feeling of privacy but your neighbors are close by.

So I spent a fair amount of this month helping my daughter move into her place – my 3/4 ton van did a fine job of being a moving van.  I got her a mower through my friend Lewis who fixes such things plus brought my mower so we could get the lawn cut before it turned into a jungle.  We found an Open Box deal on a washer & dryer at Best Buy, hauled it to the house and between JR & I everything got installed.  The washer at first wanted to walk across the floor on spin but a quick reference to the manual & a YouTube video later I was removing the shipping bolts which solved the problem. 

It took several trips but eventually even my Urchin’s motorcycle was at her new digs.  The frig in the house only sort of works so Urchin is saving up for a replacement.  The dishwasher was dead but has been replaced by a $25 ReStore find.  Various other little things common to new used houses have also been fixed – dead light bulbs replaced, door locks replaced, loose screws tightened, shower curtains installed, bedroom drapes installed and Thompson’s Water Seal applied to the veranda and rear deck.  But by month’s end things were shaping up nicely. 

Hugs and thanks to all of our friends who helped make this happen.  You all are the best.